´¡¸é¸éÄ€±·, a region of eastern Transcaucasia. It lay essentially within the great triangle of land, lowland in the east but rising to mountains in the west, formed by the junction of the Rivers Kur or Kura and Araxes or Aras. It was thus bounded on the north by ŠervÄn; on the north west by ŠakkÄ« (Armenian ŠakÊ¿e) and Kaxeti in eastern Georgia; on the south by Armenia and Azerbaijan; and on the southeast by the Caspian coastal province of MÅ«qÄn or MÅ«gÄn. ArrÄn’s situation between these two great rivers explains the name Bayn al-nahrayn given to it by Islamic geographers.
In pre-Islamic times, ArrÄn formed the heart of the province of Caucasian Albania (to be distinguished of course from the Balkan Albania), which in fact embraced all eastern Transcaucasia, i.e. ArrÄn here was a wider concept than that of post-Islamic ArrÄn, and corresponded grosso modo with the modern Azerbaijan SSR. The Armenian term for this land was AÅ‚vankÊ¿ or ṘaneakÊ¿, and the history of the region, from mythical times till the 10th century A.D., is given by the Armenian historian MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i (formerly referred to as KaÅ‚ankatwacÊ¿i) (Armenian text ed. M. Emin, Moscow, 1860, repr. Tiflis, 1912, annotated tr. C. J. F. Dowsett, The History of the Caucasian Albanians, London, 1961 ). The Greeks knew the people as Albanoi, and the Georgians knew them as Rani, a form taken over in an arabized form for the early Islamic geographical term al-RÄn (pronounced ar-RÄn). Early ArrÄn seems to have displayed the famed linguistic complexity of the Caucasus as a whole. Strabo 9.4, cites Theophanes of Mytilene that Albania had at least 26 different languages or dialects, and the distinctive Albanian speech persisted into early Islamic times, since Armenian and Islamic sources alike stigmatize the tongue as cacophonous and barbarous, with Eá¹£á¹aḵrÄ«, p. 192, Ebn Ḥawqal, p. 349, tr. Kramers-Wiet, p. 342, and MoqaddasÄ«, p. 378, recording that ²¹±ô-¸éÄå²ÔÄ«²â²¹ was still spoken in the capital BardaÊ¿a or Bará¸aÊ¿a in their time (4th/10th century). Hence Markwart, Ä’°ùÄå²Ô&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;²¹³ó°ù, p. 117, was doubtless correct when he spoke of Albania/ArrÄn as being pre-eminently a non-Indo-European land; the Albanian tongue must have belonged to the Eastern Caucasian linguistic family, as is indicated by the recently-discovered table of the 52 characters of the Albanian alphabet, in which a few inscriptions have also been found by Soviet archeologists (see V. Minorsky, A History of SharvÄn and Darband in the 10th-11th Centuries, Cambridge, 1958, pp. 11-12; the present Udi language, surviving vestigially in ŠakkÄ«, is considered to be a remnant of it).
Albania became Christianized at approximately the same time as was Armenia; MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i places this event in the reign of King Uá¹™nayr in the mid-4th century, and states that St. Gregory, founder of the Armenian national church, was responsible for the monarch’s baptism. The Monophysite Albanian church remained separate from the Armenian one till the end of the 7th century, when the two were united under stimulus from the Arabs. Until well into medieval Islamic times, Muslims must have been only a minority in ArrÄn; MoqaddasÄ«, p. 376, writing towards the end of the 4th/10th century, describes the Christians as still a majority in the towns of Qabala and ŠÄbarÄn (near Quba). In the Byzantino-Sasanian wars, the Albanian kings sometimes had to supply contingents for the imperial Persian army, and Uá¹™nayr participated with ŠÄpÅ«r II in the siege of Ä€med in 359, but more generally they combined with their fellow-Christian Armenian princes in resisting Persian expansion into Transcaucasia and Armenia, at times even paying tribute to the Byzantines.
Towards the end of the 5th century, the ancient ruling dynasty of Albania seems to have died out, and in the later 6th century and at the time of the Arab invasions some decades after then, Albania was ruled by princes of the MihrÄn family, who claimed descent from the Sasanians but were probably of Parthian origin. Their most famous representatives in the 7th century were Varaz-Grigor, his son JuanšÄ“r (Persian JavÄnšÄ«r) and Varaz-Trdat I. The military exploits of the latter two potentates in the period of the first Arab invasions of Armenia and ArrÄn figure prominently in the 2nd book of MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i’s chronicle. These princes bore the Persian title of ArrÄnšÄh (in certain of the Arabic sources corruptly written as LÄ«rÄnšÄh), Armenian EranšahiÊ¿ or Aá¹™anšahiÊ¿.
During the time of the orthodox caliphs, and in particular during Ê¿OṯmÄn’s caliphate, such Arab commanders as SalmÄn b. RabÄ«Ê¿a al-BÄhelÄ« and ḤabÄ«b b. Maslama led raids into Armenia and ArrÄn, and in ca. 24/645 conquered the chief town of ArrÄn, Partaw (Arabic BardaÊ¿a, q.v.). Henceforth, BardaÊ¿a was always to be the bastion of Islam in these parts, though Muslim garrisons were placed in other urban centers such as BaylaqÄn, ŠamkÅ«r, and Qabala, and these were used as bases for raids northwards to Darband or BÄb al-AbwÄb and the Khazar lands (see D. M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars, Princeton, 1954, pp. 46ff., and Minorsky, A History of SharvÄn and Darband, pp. 17ff.). Nevertheless, Arab control over these Caucasian march lands was of necessity light and often uncertain, in the face of periodic invasions by such northern peoples as the Alans and Khazars. ArrÄn remained essentially a frontier province, left to its native princes, who were led by the Mihranids (these last being accorded by the Arabs the title of µþ²¹á¹rÄ«±ç or Patricius, cf. YaÊ¿qÅ«bÄ«, II, p. 562), on condition of the payment of tribute to the Muslim exchequer. In practice, the princes of ArrÄn in the time of Varaz-Trdat I (d. 705) paid tribute simultaneously to the Arabs, the Byzantines and the Khazars, according to MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i (3.12; in regard to the first two powers, probably as a result of the treaty of 685 between Justinian II and Ê¿Abd-al-Malek providing for the division between the two empires of the tribute of Armenia and ArrÄn), an indication of the confused state of affairs in eastern Transcaucasia.
Since the people of ArrÄn remained substantially Christian, they were treated in Islamic law as Ahl al-Ḏemma, hence liable to the poll-tax or Ç°±ð³ú²â²¹. This was paid in coins with Islamic superscriptions, and under the Omayyads sporadically and under the Ê¿Abbasids regularly, dirhams were issued from a mint called “ArrÄn” (probably either BardaÊ¿a or BaylaqÄn), in the case of the Ê¿Abbasids, from 145/762 onwards, continuing into the 3rd/9th century (see E. von Zambaur, Die Münzprägungen des Islams, zeitlich und örtlich geordnet I, Wiesbaden, 1968, p. 39; coins were also minted with the name “ArrÄn” under the Il-khanids in the first half of the 8th/14th century). There was also in ArrÄn, as in the whole Caucasian region, much intermarriage between Christians and Muslims, and MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i (2.32) inveighs against those Albanian nobles who polluted the race and their faith by marriages with the infidels.
The Mihranids were extinguished through the assassination of Varaz-Trdat II by Nerseh PÊ¿iÅ‚ippean in 207/822-23, and the Armenian prince of ŠakkÄ« to the north of ArrÄn, Sahl i Smbatean (Arabic, Sahl b. SonbÄá¹), extended his power over ArrÄn. The province was in these years much disturbed by the revolt of the ḴorramÄ« rebel BÄbak, whose center was at Baá¸á¸ just to the south of the Araxes, and it was Sahl who delivered up BÄbak to the caliph al-MoÊ¿taá¹£em in 223/837-38 (see Minorsky, “Caucasica IV. 1. Sahl ibn-SunbÄá¹ of ShakkÄ« and ArrÄn,” in BSOAS 15, 1953, pp. 504-14). The middle years of this century saw an intensification, however, of the policies of Islamization under al-Motawakkel’s governor in Armenia Boá¸¡Ä al-KabÄ«r, when various Armenian and Albanian local princes were deported to Baghdad and Samarra. But in 247/861-62 the caliph recognized as supreme prince in these regions the Bagratuni Ašot I (Arabic, AšÅ«á¹), who in 272/886 received the title of king. As Ê¿Abbasid control over the outlying parts of the caliphate decayed, so its authority in the Caucasian region weakened, allowing local Muslim military commanders and adventurers, like the Iranian Sajids (q.v.) of Azerbaijan and then, in the 4th/10th century, the DaylamÄ« Mosaferids; also called Sallarids or Kangarids to assume control in eastern Transcaucasia south of ŠervÄn (which now had its own line of ŠervÄnšÄhs, the Arab YazÄ«dÄ«s, based on the town of ŠervÄn). The northern branch of the Mosaferids, a family originally from ṬÄrom in Daylam, ruled in ArrÄn under MarzobÄn b. Moḥammad b. MosÄfer (330-46/941-57), followed by his son EbrÄhÄ«m, extending momentarily as far north as Darband, but failing to maintain their position in Azerbaijan and ArrÄn under pressure from the Kurdish Rawwadids of TabrÄ«z. It was during the Mosaferids’ rule in ArrÄn that the Scandinavian RÅ«s mounted their celebrated raid up the Kur valley to BardaÊ¿a (332/943-4).
The Islamic geographers of this period give descriptions of ArrÄn in general and of its towns (BardaÊ¿a, BaylaqÄn, ³Ò²¹²ÔÇ°²¹ and ŠamkÅ«r or al-MotawakkelÄ«ya) in particular, describing their agricultural fertility and their importance for commerce across the Caucasus, despite their vulnerability to attacks from the Georgians and the RÅ«s. The ḤodÅ«d al-Ê¿Älam, (tr. Minorsky pp. 142-45, commentary pp. 396-403), considers Azerbaijan, ArrÄn, and Armenia as the pleasantest of all the Islamic lands. It is also interesting that Ebn Ḥawqal (pp. 349, 356, tr. pp. 342, 348) speaks of “the two ArrÄns,” apparently meaning ArrÄn proper to the south of the Kur and also ŠervÄn to its north. The native princes of ArrÄn were in the later 4th/10th century and early 5th/11th century hard-pressed by the Kurdish Shaddadids established in ³Ò²¹²ÔÇ°²¹ from 360/970 onwards, who also captured the Armenian city of Dvin. It seems that certain of the princes of ArrÄn tried to preserve their position by marriage alliances with the Rawwadids. Also, after this time, when the Shaddadids were in full occupation of ArrÄn, the Persian poet Qaá¹rÄn (q.v.), who flourished in the middle decades of the 5th/11th century and was the eulogist of various Muslim potentates of Azerbaijan and ArrÄn, praises the Shaddadid AmÄ«r FażlÅ«n b. Fażl II b. Abi’l-AswÄr (465-67/1073-75) for his descent on the maternal side from the Bagratunis, indicating further Muslim-Christian alliances (see Minorsky, ḤodÅ«d al-Ê¿Älam, pp. 396-97, and idem, Studies in Caucasian History, London, 1953, chaps. i and ii). The last known native prince of ArrÄn from the old families mentioned by a continuator of MovsÄ“s DasxurancÊ¿i (3.23) is the ruler SenekÊ¿erim of YovhannÄ“s son of Išxan, king of the Armenian province of SiwnikÊ¿ or Sisakan (the mountainous region lying between Lake Sevan, later Turkish GökÄe, and the Araxes, hence to the west of ArrÄn, see Markwart, Ä’°ùÄå²Ô&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;²¹³ó°ù, pp. 120-22, and Minorsky, op. cit., pp. 68-70) in the last years of the 11th century (according to Brosset, ca. 1080-1105).
The eastern Caucasus came under Saljuq control in the middle years of the 5th/11th century, and in ca. 468/1075-56 Sultan Alp ArslÄn sent his slave commander Ê¿EmÄd-al-dÄ«n Savtigin as governor of Azerbaijan and ArrÄn, displacing the last Shaddadids. From this period begins the increasing Turkicization of ArrÄn, under the Saljuqs and then under the line of Eldigüzid or Ildeñizid Atabegs, who had to defend eastern Transcaucasia against the attacks of the resurgent Georgian kings. The influx of Oghuz and other Türkmens was accentuated by the Mongol invasions. BardaÊ¿a had never revived fully after the RÅ«s sacking, and is little mentioned in the sources. It seems to have been replaced as the capital of ArrÄn by BaylaqÄn, but this was in turn sacked by the Mongols en route for ŠervÄn and Darband in spring 1221 (JovaynÄ«, tr. Boyle, I, pp. 148-49); after this, ³Ò²¹²ÔÇ°²¹, the later Elizavetopol and now KirovÄbÄd, rose to prominence, the southern part of ArrÄn now becoming known as QarabÄḡ. The old name ArrÄn drops out of use, and the history and fortunes of the region now merge into those of Azerbaijan.
See also ALBANIA.
Bibliography:
See also SamÊ¿ÄnÄ« (Hyderabad), VI pp. 49-50 (a few Ê¿´Ç±ô²¹³¾Äåʾ with the nesba “al-RÄnÄ«”); YÄqÅ«t (Beirut), III, pp. 18-19; A. Manandian, Beiträge zur albanischen Geschichte, Leipzig, 1897. Markwart, Ä’°ùÄå²Ô&²õ³¦²¹°ù´Ç²Ô;²¹³ó°ù, pp. 116-19.
Idem, Osteuropäische und ostasiatische Streifzüge, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 443ff.
Le Strange, Lands, pp. 176-79.
J. Laurent, L’Arménie entre Byzance et l’Islam, Paris, 1919.
P. Schwarz, Iran, pp. 978ff., 1098-1100, 1139, 1144-45.
V. Minorsky and Cl. Cahen, “Le recueil transcaucasien de MasÊ¿ûd b. Nâmdâr (début du VIe/XIIe siecle),” JA, 1949, pp. 93-142.
Minorsky, “Caucasica IV,” BSOAS 15, 1953, pp. 504-29.
Zeki Velidi Togan, “Arrân,” in IA I, pp. 596-98.
(C. E. Bosworth)
Originally Published: December 15, 1986
Last Updated: August 12, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 5, pp. 520-522
C. E. Bosworth, “´¡¸é¸éÄ€±·,” Encyclopædia Iranica, II/5, pp. 520-522, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/arran-a-region (accessed on 30 December 2012).
